The present invention relates in general to displaying a phone directory on a mobile handset when dialing an enterprise such as a business, institutional, governmental or other enterprise organization, and, more specifically, to presenting an organizational directory to a mobile handset when the wireless network and/or handset are not capable of simultaneous voice and data communications.
A typical business or other organizational enterprise (e.g., a governmental or educational entity) may have many members or employees of the organization who are reachable by respective telephone extensions. An enterprise system may use a public branch exchange (PBX) that includes a main telephone number associated with a central system wherein the central system interacts with callers and redirects calls to appropriate destinations within the PBX. The interface function is typically automated using an interactive voice response (IVR) unit that plays audio prompts and collects responses from the caller. The prompts typically follow a menu structure that is navigated by the caller by speaking various commands or by pressing keypad buttons on the telephone device to produce the commands as DTMF tones.
A typical person has an easier time remembering the name of a person they want to call rather than an extension number of that person. Systems are known wherein an IVR menu provides access to the names of people available at an enterprise, such as by entering the first few letters of their name using the keypad and then providing prompts to confirm the selection. However, such systems can be cumbersome and are not helpful when the caller can remember neither the person's name nor their extension number. Furthermore, prior systems have been adaptable to take into account the actual availability of the callee or to provide the call recipients with any control over which callers can gain access to their extensions. Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved directory system for providing contact information when a caller calls into a business or other enterprise exchange.
Commonly assigned co-pending application U.S. Ser. No. 12/412,813, filed Mar. 27, 2009, entitled “Displaying Business Directory Information On A Mobile Handset”, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses a system and methods for communicating the directory information to a mobile handset that may work most effectively in a carrier network that allows simultaneous voice and data communication. However, many existing mobile wireless networks (including CDMA, iDEN, and GSM) may not support simultaneous voice and data communication, and some handsets may also be incapable of such simultaneous voice and data channels, thereby making the combined voice and data functions of the directory service more challenging. The present invention supports an integrated voice and data user experience for receiving an enterprise directory on a network which does not support simultaneous voice and data.